pARTying it up...

a pARTy for adelaide the artist, age four.

DECORATIONS:

*THE MANTLE*

colorful frames with a's pictures though the years, four hot pink taper candles,

and a small strip of the paint chip garland along the largest frame.

*BRIGHTLY COLORED POLKA DOT BALLOONS*

*PAINT CHIP GARLAND AND CREPE PAPER*

(inspiration found here) six girls in our family enjoyed creating this together over christmas break. paint chips were cut into shapes with a scalloped oval puncher, then we sewed them together in long strips on the sewing machine. we hung a hula hoop from the chandelier in the kitchen and attached crepe paper and rows of the garland from it.

*ART QUOTES*
i love both of these quotes and it was fun to see these reminders during the party.

*SIGNS AND PICTURES IN A VARIETY OF FRAMES*

we used frames from around our house and some found in target clearance section from their dorm stuff.

ACTIVITES:

before the party started i set out everything we would need for each activity.

the plan was to do the outside art activities the first 30 minutes of the party, come inside and paint our canvases for about 30 minutes, then do the food and drink art for 30 minutes. it went pretty smoothly along with the schedule with just a little time at the end to read some books and gather everyone's things.

1) SIDEWALK ART

aunt sara kate crushed sidewalk chalk and then we mixed each color with equal parts cold water and cornstarch. the girls used paintbrushes to paint all over the driveway.

2) FACE ART

using these face paint sticks and simple designs.

3) PHOTO BOOTH

i had set out one of our frames and hoped to take adelaide's picture with each of her friends some time during the party. when my talented friend megan arrived with her daughter for the party, she had brought along her camera and said she would love to photograph the festivities if i didn't mind. talk about a fabulous surprise! i printed out the adorable pics she took and used them as thank you notes for each guest (and most of the pics in this post are thanks to her too).

4) CANVAS ART

adelaide loves painting, and i like teaching art, so it worked out well to give a mini art lesson to the girls inspired by the information found here. they each put on a smock (ordered here) and picked up a paintbrush. i had pencil sketched the outline of the vase on the canvas ahead of time, and they painted the rest on their own following directions. they were so proud of their creations. 

5) CUPCAKE ART

i came across this and adelaide loved the idea of everyone blowing out a candle with her. the guests all had a candle in their cupcake and the birthday girl had four. we sang "happy birthday" first then everyone got busy decorating and eating.

6) COOKIE ART

we adapted an idea found here, using food coloring markers found at michaels.

the kids took home a bag of colorful cookies to share with their families.

7) KOOL-AID ART

this ended up being one of our favorite parts of the party. we made a pitcher of cherry kool-aid, blue raspberry kool-aid, and lemonade. the lemonade was very light so my mom suggested adding a few drops of yellow food coloring to it and it worked perfectly. each kid chose what color they kool-aid they wanted and i poured the two colors needed to make it into her cup. i found the clear straw cups at wolmart and they worked great to see the colors changing before our eyes.

FAVORS:

along with their artist smocks, straw cups, and paintings the girls took home little bags filled with a notebook, our favorite markers (crayola pipsqueaks) and smARTies candy. adelaide had lots of fun helping put the favor bags together with me ahead of time for her sweet friends. 

it was a fun-filled ARTSY day celebrating adelaide.

she just didn't want the fun to end.